Gotta hit the road

Everything is ready except for me hehe

I always thought the whole planning went suspiciously easy:

I went to a random Tapis Hertz shop, where I got my visa in 5 minutes, a breeze in comparison to what you have to do as a volunteer for India for example.

Then I got some vaccines and a lot of advice about all things healthcare

I looked up some things about Nepal and got a lot of impressions from a lot of people

I packed

I left.

In between, I had a really good time at work. I got to spend nice moments with my friends, went to a concert of one of my favourite musicians, Flume, with my Bro, two days before he went to Canada. I spent a weekend at my Grandmas and we had a nice family dinner for Allsaints’ Day.

During that last time, it really dawned on me, just how lucky I am. I have so many good people looking after me, and for you reading this, you’re probably one of them as well.

I had a raclette dinner with my best mates, we laughed all the way through it and I tried to recharge on moments like that, so much so that I would remember how good it is to be around them for all my time away.

I know that one of the hard things of traveling alone is that, everywhere you go, you’ll build relationships from scratch. For a good time, every conversation starts with:” Hi, I’m Tilly, I’m from Luxembourg, no worries if you don’t know my country, it’s tiny, and somewhere in Europe. Yes, we have our own language. Pleased to meet you…”

Plus, often, people will not understand you, and you’ll not be able to have a fluent conversation with anyone. Then, it’s very likely, you’ll miss just knowing the person you’re talking too, not having to think about what to say and most of all, not having to explain because the person knows what you say between the lines, just by how you say it.

All in all, I had a lot of things to miss, and I really never thought I’d ever think so highly of my home. Luxembourg might be quite shit in a lot of things, but it’s home.

“ Au fond, j'crois qu'la Terre est ronde

Pour une seule bonne raison...

Après avoir fait l'Tour du Monde

Tout c'qu'on veut, c'est être à la maison”

La terre est ronde, Orelsan

By the time it was time to drive to the airport, I was waiting for the piano to fall on my head, it was just going tooo well.

But so far, no piano.

I flew with Rajani and Tsewang, on 16th November, a Saturday afternoon, to Paris, where we spent three hours eating what was gonna be my last cheese sandwich *crying*, we had bought from an arrogant Parisien, lovely.

Rajani and Tsewang both live in Kathmandou, so they can actually show me around their home as well, give and take:)

Then we flew to Abu Dhabi, I watched the Lion King and laughed so much I probably woke some people up, sorry hahaha…

Abu Dhabi was very new for me, I found it really interesting how east and west meet to become this weird mess of culture. Another two hours, then we flew to Kathmandu.

I was looking out of the window the whole time, but couldn’t see any mountains at all.

I was confused cause the Pilot had said we were preparing for landing like 10 minutes ago, I was about to go up to the cockpit and ask if maybe we were maybe going the wrong way, then I saw that on the other side, mountains like I had never seen before where everywhere. What a fail hahaha

I looked like the city was lying in a bathtub (it used to be a lake some thousand years ago), and it looked so crazyyyy from above, houses everywhere, no recognisable main street, a wonderful mess.

My first thought was that this was like another world, then I had to smile upon thinking how hilariously lost I'm going to be in the beginning.

Upon Arrival I saw this Grandma in a bright green Sari, sweeping the runway with this piece of hay. The image was priceless, cause everything was so dusty, you could see only the landing strips she had already gone over.

Unfortunately, the airport also meant saying my last goodbye, it was to our Nepali visitors, who have become real friends.

My first goodbye I probably said in summer, with all my friends going to Uni. With them it's going to be 8 months until we meet again, puuhhhh

I said goodbye to my eldest brother three weeks ago and to my elder brother last week. Then came my grandma, the people I worked with, my parents...

Of course, I had to say goodbye, what had I imagined?

Not much I suppose, cause when I had to part from one loved one after the other, I realized just how many strings I was actually cutting off.

In the pre-departure training that all volunteers did, there was one activity where we got gummy bears.

Then we were asked: You are the gummi bear in the middle, with the others, map out how all your most important relationships look like.

So I put 2 circles, me as part of both, one for family, one for friends. I put people in that died because they're still in my circle no matter what. I put friends in that I don't talk to much anymore, cause friends are friends, no matter what.

Once we had carefully arranged what we would "our safety net”, we were then asked to strip the ground of every gummi bear except the one that was us. That's what going away for a long time can feel like.

Not always evidently, cause I can call anytime, but sometimes, I will feel completely on my own.

Then there's one of two things happening, either I feel happy alone or I don't.

On the plane to Nepal, I felt both. They don't usually mix up like that, but I was just one big amount of feelings moving on two legs and hoping I'd make it through passport control.

Do I have a sense of how long it will feel like? Not at all, I have no idea about the ups and downs that I will have in five months, at least for now, I think it will feel ridiculously short by the end. Time has always flown, it doesn’t seem to intend on slowing down, even in Nepal.

I'm coming home next summer, maybe then, upon seeing everything I've missed, I will realize how long I really was away.

Boah man, I really don't know. When I was away in Scotland for 6 months in 2016, I also thought nothing much had changed when I came back, though was not completely true...

This time, I feel like everyone is making life-determining decisions, we're reinventing ourselves at 19teen. Sometimes I feel like if I don't ask my friends for updates often enough, they will change into different people without me knowing.

Then again, I think we tend to think, too often, we know people when we really don't.

Okay, enough messy talk for today. I arrived soundly in Pharping, I had a 30 hour day and will now happily fall asleep for 10 hours. Niroj, the Program coordinator got me from the airport, with a flower necklace, and he dropped me in my Host Family.

They are extremelyyyyy welcoming and have two children, and a free room for me. Which I was very glad about, cause I knew I needed some time to be alone...

That's the house I live in, first floor left on the pic. The neighbours left and right are all Family, open door for visitors at all times, J'aime!

The time difference is 4H 45 min, which will suck For sure, cause I never get to call anyone when they are done with work and have time.

Big thank you to all Nepali people for always going to bad so early.

Or maybe it's just a gift you want to offer to me as compensation for the fact that you have such a complicated language, which is the reason why I am so tired in the first place.

I'll keep you updated on whether my Nepali will become anything more than nonexistent anytime soon.

Also, I made a playlist about leaving, here it is:

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5qBirPMKUXAEohcOUdZBFH?si=x-QVAYewSkW57ACEVWeRLw

In Friendship,

Teddy Smile